Snowdon is a dummy

Despite all that, five more hours went by and neither the Guardian's lawyers nor Brazilian officials, including the Ambassador to the UK in London, were able to obtain any information about David. We spent most of that time contemplating the charges he would likely face once the 9-hour period elapsed.

Quote:

Despite all that, five more hours went by and neither the Guardian's lawyers nor Brazilian officials, including the Ambassador to the UK in London, were able to obtain any information about David. We spent most of that time contemplating the charges he would likely face once the 9-hour period elapsed.

Good for him.......

See what I mean, Izzy. You say the nuttiest things when you get caught out on your prevarications. You never answered on the Japan-Holocaust thread either.

Was the US involved in the detention of David Miranda in some way?

I've traveled the equivalent of over 25 times around this world, and when I go to the airport, I'm inspected as if I'm a potential terrorist.

[...]A spokesman for the British Foreign Ministry said the episode was a “police matter” and would provide no further comment.

Civil rights groups in Britain have criticized Section 7 of the Terrorism Act, accusing the authorities of using the provision to arbitrarily stop and detain travelers, particularly Muslims. The British Home Office has said it is reviewing the provision in an effort to address the concerns.

A lawyer for The Guardian in London was working on trying to understand what had happened, as were foreign-affairs officials for Brazil both in that country and in London, Mr. Greenwald said. He said that he received a call from the Brazilian foreign minister about 40 minutes after alerting the Brazilian government, and that the Brazilian authorities were outraged.

Sergio Danese, the under secretary for consular affairs at Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, said he did not know why Mr. Miranda had been detained. He said Brazil’s consul general and embassy officials in London worked to resolve the situation. As of Sunday afternoon, Mr. Miranda was en route to Brazil, he said.

“We were satisfied with him being liberated,” Mr. Danese said.

Why are we still using TSA agents at airports that cost billions without actually protecting us from terrorists?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/tsa_now_storming_public_places_8000_times_a_tear.html


TSA Now Storming Public Places 8,000 Times a Year
By Tara Servatius
Americans must decide if, in the name of homeland security, they are willing to allow TSA operatives to storm public places in their communities with no warning, pat them down, and search their bags. And they better decide quickly.
Bus travelers were shocked when jackbooted TSA officers in black SWAT-style uniforms descended unannounced upon the Tampa Greyhound bus station in April with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and federal bureaucrats in tow.
A news report by ABC Action News in Tampa showed passengers being given the signature pat downs Americans are used to watching the Transportation Security Administration screeners perform at our airports. Canine teams sniffed their bags and the buses they rode. Immigration officials hunted for large sums of cash as part of an anti-smuggling initiative.
The TSA clearly intends for these out-of-nowhere swarms by its officers at community transit centers, bus stops and public events to become a routine and accepted part of American life.
The TSA has conducted 8,000 of these security sweeps across the country in the past year alone, TSA chief John Pistole told a Senate committee June 14. They are part of its VIPR (Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response) program, which targets public transit related places.
All of which is enough to make you wonder if we are watching the formation of the "civilian national security force" President Obama called for on the campaign trail "that is just as powerful, just as strong and just as well funded" as the military.
The VIPR swarm on Wednesday, the TSA's largest so far, was such a shocking display of the agency's power that it set the blogosphere abuzz.
In a massive flex of muscle most people didn't know the TSA had, the agency led dozens of federal and state law enforcement agencies in a VIPR exercise that covered three states and 5,000 square miles. According to the Marietta Times, the sweep used reconnaissance aircraft and "multiple airborne assets, including Blackhawk helicopters and fixed wing aircraft as well as waterborne and surface teams."
When did the TSA get this powerful? Last year, Pistole told USA Today he wanted to "take the TSA to the next level," building it into a "national-security, counterterrorism organization, fully integrated into U.S. government efforts."
What few people realize is how far Pistole has already come in his quest. This is apparently what that next level looks like. More than 300 law enforcement and military personnel swept through a 100-mile stretch of the Ohio Valley alone, examining the area's industrial infrastructure, the Charleston Gazette reported.
Federal air marshals, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI, the Office of Homeland Security and two dozen other federal, state and local agencies teamed up to scour the state's roads, bridges, water supply and transit centers under the TSA's leadership.
What is remarkable about these security swarms is that they don't just involve federal, state and local law enforcement officials. The TSA brings in squads of bureaucrats from state and federal agencies as well, everything from transportation departments to departments of natural resources.
The TSA had received no specific threats about the Tampa bus station before the April sweep, reporters were told.
They were there "to sort of invent the wheel in advance in case we have to if there ever is specific intelligence requiring us to be here," said Gary Milano with the Department of Homeland Security in an ABC News Action television report. "This way us and our partners are ready to move in at a moment's notice."
Federal immigration officials from Customs and Border Patrol swept the station with the TSA, looking for "immigration violations, threats to national security" and "bulk cash smuggling." (How the bulk cash smuggling investigation related to national security was never explained.)
"We'll be back," Milano told reporters. "We won't say when we'll be back. This way the bad guys are on notice we'll be back."
The TSA gave the same vague answers when asked about the three-state sweep this week. That sweep wasn't in response to any specific security threat, either.
The purpose was to "have a visible presence and let people know we're out here," Michael Cleveland, federal security director for TSA operations in West Virginia told the Gazette. "It can be a deterrent."
It might be -- if Americans are willing to live this way.
Tara Servatius is a radio talk show host. Follow her @TaraServatius and on Facebook.
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Detention of Guardian journalist's partner 'extraordinary', says Keith Vaz

Senior MP to seek explanation from police after detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda, at Heathrow airport

The chairman of the home affairs select committee has said he will write to police after the partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.

... ... ...

Labour has called for an urgent investigation into the use of anti-terror powers to detain David Miranda, the partner of a Guardian journalist who interviewed US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said ministers must find out whether anti-terror laws had been "misused", after Miranda was held for nine hours by authorities at Heathrow airport under the Terrorism Act.

His detention has caused "considerable consternation" and the Home Office must explain how this can be justified as appropriate and proportionate, she said.
... ... ...

The police will be asked to justify the detention of a journalist's partner under terror laws, the chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has said.

Keith Vaz said the full facts of David Miranda's nine-hour detention at Heathrow must be established quickly.

Mr Miranda's partner is the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who has written about US whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The Independent Reviewer of Terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, told the BBC it was very unusual for a passenger to be held for nine hours under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and he wanted to "get to the bottom" of what had happened.

He said he has asked the Home Office and Scotland Yard for a full briefing.

The Guardian said: "We were dismayed that the partner of a Guardian journalist who has been writing about the security services was detained for nearly nine hours while passing through Heathrow airport.

"We are urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities."

Under schedule 7, UK police can hold someone at an airport for up to nine hours for questioning about whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism.

BBC correspondent Ben Ando says the power must be used appropriately and proportionately, and is subject to independent scrutiny.

According to the Home Office, more than 97% of examinations last less than an hour.

Anyone detained must "give the examining officer any information in his possession which the officer requests". Any property seized must be returned after seven days.
Mr Greenwald said the British authorities' actions in holding Mr Miranda amounted to "intimidation and bullying" and linked it to his writing about Edward Snowden's revelations concerning the US National Security Agency (NSA).


"They never asked him about a single question at all about terrorism or anything relating to a terrorist organisation," he told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

"They spent the entire day asking about the reporting I was doing and other Guardian journalists were doing on the NSA stories.

"The principal point, since they kept him for the full nine hours, is to try and send a message of intimidation and bullying.


The Metropolitan Police confirmed Mr Miranda was held but has not explained why he was detained.

UK be so interested in intimidating someone over a scandal that basically has to do with the US?